A saw wire is known for a wire saw. Such a wire saw has a drive system which drives the saw wire guided over several deflecting pulleys. The saw wire consists thereby of a steel wire, whereby at specific distances on the steel wire there are arranged approximately circular-cylindrical saw pearls each consisting of a sinter body. The sinter bodies have hard bodies bound into a binding means, which hard bodies are, during the manufacturing process of the saw pearls, completely arranged in the binding means so that the hard bodies at the start of time of use of the saw wire contribute little to the cutting performance. Only when the hard bodies, through wear of the binding means during the sawing operation, are partly freed from the binding means, can they contribute fully to the cutting performance. This state is achieved with a newly inserted saw wire, depending on the daily duration of use, after approximately three days. Then the maximum sawing performance is available. Whereas the sawing performance at the start of use is approximately 30% of the maximum sawing performance.